Hi Folks,
I have a 950, 7 M200 and a Rocket ultra setup with 300's for side suround. Reguardless of the source I use, TV, DVD, CD, etc and when then 950 is in PLII M or C CR mode I got just about no sound from the side surounds or rears. I can only hear music from the rears when in 7 setero mode. I have entered in the distances of all my speaker from the center and calibrated all speaker to 75db. I tried various setting in the DB PL parameter setup but I am unable to hear anything from the rear without walking up to them and placing my ear against the tweeters. Is there something that I am failing to adjust or does it sound like my 950 is not working correctly? Should I be able to hear significant music sound from the rears? M or C mode doesn't seem to make any difference. Any ideas?

In general, if you're hearing sound from the rears, you haven't configured things correctly. The goal of PLII is to produce a convincing 3d soundstage for whatever the source, and it does this by reproducing the ambience. Any sound you're getting from the surrounds, therefore, should be subtle.

In other words, everything's normal.

Jeff

I'm not even hearing "subtle" ambience. I have to put my ear practically right up agaist the tweeter to hearing anything. So way it is now can't be normal. Everything sounds like it comming from the fronts. I can adjust the width of the center center just fine and I can hear a definite difference between "all center" and "no center". Is there a way I can make the rear louder so I hear ambience? I had a friend over last night listening too so I know it isn't just my perception.

You should be hearing all you want from your rear speakers in PLll, cnewlander. Set Panorama to ON. Then, try scrolling thru the Dimension setting- you should notice a fairly large change as you go from Step 0 to Step -1. If not, you may have a problem! PS-- Have you set speaker levels by doing channel calibration with a sound level meter? Best wishes...

I did a channel calibration to 72db with the analog radio shack meter. I defintely have Panorama ON and scrolled through the Dimension settings from -3 to 3 - Neither myself or my friend who is an audiophile nut could not tell a difference. It is not source related as it happens with input from a digital coaxial input or analog.

So far one person says I should only hear ambience and another says I shouod hear all I want. I'm just getting into Home Theater -Anyone else have an opinoin on this? Thanks.

Craig

I hear a fair bit when listening to broadcast stereo, especially during commercials (commercials make themselves seem louder by putting sound/music in across as much of the spectrum as they can). I'd say you may have a problem. On a side note was 72 dB a typo? Recommended is 75 db (just a quibble) The only other thing I can think of is that in the configuration menu, making sure the surrounds are on and that you have it set up for all seven not just 6 (RS/LS not BS) ... probably thought of all that already. Call the Outlaw Support, they are exceedingly helpful.

So far one person says I should only hear ambience and another says I shouod hear all I want. I'm just getting into Home Theater -Anyone else have an opinoin on this? Thanks.

Do the speakers sound completly normal in 7-S mode? So no issues with loose connections?
DLPII is VERY recording dependent, In other words depends on what you play as too what might get sent to the rears (sometimes nothing). I'm sorry I'm tired but will try to recall if there are any demos I can think of with heavy side/back info. Recently I noticed that the movie "Frenquency" via my Satelite feed was killer through the 950 DPLII. Not throughout the film however (ambiance moments) sometimes the film stayed across the the fronts ....it depended on the scene, But there was several , EX: where a background choir shifted distincly to sides/rears with frnt channels carrying dialog then a noticable sift of dialog to the side as a charater moved during some of the drama moments. There are some recordings that DPLII can not effective steering on (any noticable).
Outlaws do you have some good demo recomends for him to verify his DLPII activity level?

I have to admit that when I first used PLII I wasn't that impressed. In fact I couldn't understand what the fuss was all about, the surrounds I thought were weak. It wasn't until I turned the circuit off that I realized the enveloping effect it provided. So you should notice "something" as you switch it on and off, (provided it's working properly and you have the parameters set correctly). Try Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" cd and see what your system will do.

Play around with the settings too. I like the effect more with the imaging shifted more towards the back of the room.

Listen. I own a Lexicon MC-12. It's considered to be one of the finest surround processors in the world, with a list price of around $9,000. When I listen to my MC-12 in Logic 7, Lexicon's world-reknown surround processing mode, I almost never hear the surrounds, nor would I want to.

The goal of surrounds is not to make each one of your speakers noticable: it's to make whatever source you're listening to sound as realistic as possible.

Not only do you not want to make your surround speakers noticeable, the majority of specifically-designed surround speakers are designed in such as way as to further reduce the amount that the speaker is noticed.

In other words, people spend good money (is there any other kind?) and lots of it deliberately trying to eliminate the effect whose absence you're complaining about.

Jeff